John Hourican, the chief executive of markets and international banking at Royal Bank of Scotland, is reportedly close to leaving the UK bank over its manipulation of Libor. Financial News looks at the internal candidates who could replace him.

Peter Nielsen, chief executive of the markets business at RBS, could also leave, according to a BBC report this afternoon http://bbc.in/UP3GFb.

RBS could not be reached for comment.

Hourican has worked at RBS since 1997 and has overseen large-scale change at the group's investment banking unit. Following the fall of Lehman Brothers in the autumn of 2008, RBS's share price collapsed and the bank was left searching for capital as markets entered a state of panic. Hourican was put in charge of the development and implementation of the strategic plan for RBS’s wholesale bank

In 2012, RBS revealed that it would exit cash equities, corporate broking, equity capital markets and advisory. The bank rebranded its investment banking operation under a single markets unit that would be focused on fixed-income business.

Profits for the investment bank for the third quarter of 2012 were £295m. This was up 18% on the previous three-month period.

RBS is widely expected to become the third large bank, after Barclays and UBS before it, to pay a fine to regulators for the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate. The scandal has already led to wholesale changes at the top of Barclays. Four former investment bank heads at UBS were accused of "gross negligence" yesterday when they faced a UK banking standards panel over Libor fixing at the Swiss bank between 2005 and 2010 http://bit.ly/UOG2IZ.

If RBS's role in the scandal were to cost Hourican his job, there a clutch of internal candidates who could possibly replace him. But Chris Wheeler, banks analyst at Mediobanca, said any replacement of would have a “very difficult job”.

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He said: “It’s a very difficult job and there isn’t the certainty surrounding the investment bank you need given the political pressure to shrink it. There would be no obvious buyer of the business if it had to exit investment banking completely and it’s not an attractive business to spin off. On top of that you would be stepping into a highly charged environment under the public spotlight.”

Below, Financial News profiles the likeliest internal candidates.

• Suneel Kamlani, deputy chief executive of markets and investment banking
Based in the US, Kamlani is also chairman of markets and international banking Americas and deputy head of RBS group in the Americas. He joined the bank in April 2010 as president of global banking markets. Prior to that, he had been chief operating officer of UBS Investment Bank. Kamlani played a key role in helping to shutter UBS’s crisis-hit Dillon Read Capital Management business. He had held responsibility, alongside then interim chief investment officer Ramesh Singh, for reintegrating the DRCM’s proprietary trading functions into UBS’s investment bank.

• Alison Rose, head of markets and international banking, Emea
An outsider, given she was only promoted last year. Rose does, however, hold a number of senior posts alongside her key European investment banking role. She is a member of RBS’s investment banking executive committee, the chair of its Emea risk and controls committee and the chair of its global sighting and capital committee. She is also an executive sponsor of diversity and inclusion for the markets and international banking division.

• John Owen, chief executive, international banking
Close to RBS CEO Stephen Hester, Owen is a client banker by nature and is well regarded internally. He joined RBS in January 2011 and is responsible for the bank’s client coverage teams, its international network, lending and transaction services products and the provision of products, such as DCM, rates and FX. He is a member of the RBS Group Management Committee. Prior to his current role, Owen was head of Emea. He previously worked at Credit Suisse in various senior management positions.

• Nathan Bostock, head of restructuring and risk
The banker ultimately responsible for RBS’s non-core division, Bostock has overseen a smooth reduction of the firm’s portfolio of unwanted assets. The division shrunk from an initial size of £258bn at its inception in 2009 to £65bn by the end of September last year. A member of RBS’s executive committee, Bostock had been set to join rival UK lender Lloyds Banking Group in July 2011, although decided to stay. Bostock is also responsible for the firm’s legal and risk management functions.

• Rory Cullinan, chief executive, non-core division
A member of RBS’S management committee, Cullinan reports in to Bostock. His responsibilities include finding buyers for the bank’s disparate global assets. Prior to heading the non-core division, Cullinan was head of equity finance at RBS between 2001 and 2005. Before rejoining RBS, he had been co-managing partner and group board member at Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital.